OF COURSE they pay their players. How else do you spend $90 million a year on football without sending a bunch of money out the door? Just think - lets say that $90 million fell out of an airplane onto our program and we had to spend it without doing anything to facilities. What would you do if there weren't any rules or ethical restrictions? I mean you would have to pay athletes - for one thing you literally couldn't hire enough people on staff to spend that much money. Just like with elite basketball recruits, its common sense, and its the Alabama way that Kirby "Smart" is capitalizing on.